New Space Engine Could Turn Tiny CubeSats into Interplanetary Explorers

CubeSats are cheap and tiny spacecraft that weigh just 11 pounds (5 kilograms) or so. At present, they're generally restricted to Earth orbit, where they circle passively until their orbits decay and they die a fiery death in the planet's atmosphere.

But the new propulsion system — which the team calls the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster, or CAT — could change all that, turning such bantam spacecraft into interplanetary probes, Longmier and his colleagues say.